innocent_lex | Entries tagged with technology

I've been meaning to sort out my study for months. Seriously, months and months. I decided to do it today because there was an accident on the motorway so I couldn't go to the garden centre and I didn't want to waste the keenness to do something. Anyhoo...

There are two large sets of shelves in my study, plus one cupboard, plus a couple of tall sets of shelves. From that description, you'd think my study is massive but it really isn't. There's enough room for me to get to the desk, sit down, and sometimes get things done. The problem is that all of these shelves and cupboards are full of stuff but I genuinely didn't know what that stuff was and I could never find things I needed (assuming I even remembered I owned them!). So what did I discover? Bearing in mind I've so far only done one big set of shelves and the cupboard, I'm doing pretty well:

3 old laptops (which weigh a tonne) plus one netbook and one router
3 old mobile phones
2 palm pilots with accompanying gadgets and gidgets
A lorryload of cables and plugs
Two sets of speakers, three sets of earphones and two bluetooth earphones (which I don't think work)
Two big rechargeable torches whose plugs I've been searching for for years and still can't find - bin 'em
A bunch of multi-port USB ports
Two spare keyboards, various mouse mats and a brand new mouse (handy!)
Two portable CD players
Christmas, birthday, thank you and various other cards, plus wrapping paper
Pens, more pens and whole boatloads of other pens. Most don't work.
Post-its. About 20 decks.
Paper and photo paper for the printer
Ink cartridges for the printer
Various recovery CDs for various computers I don't use any more
A couple of spare backup drives I'd forgotten about completely
A lot of plastic boxes that are now empty of the crap I'd been hoarding in them

So I have divided the spoils into stuff I'm keeping due to security reasons (computers, phones, etc), stuff I'm recycling, stuff I'm chucking out, and stuff I actually need to use. I have 5 completely empty shelves so far.

And another bonus? I had been looking to buy a new set of shelves to go in the gym because I didn't have anywhere to put stuff. Turns out if you dump all the stuff you don't need any more and organise the stuff you do, you miraculously find space. Who knew?

Crossposts: http://innocent-lex.livejournal.com/557962.html

What is this new role of 'secutry' that you speak of so often? Is the PM renaming everything? Or are you all just incapable of enunciating clearly?

Thanks for your attention,

KRs.

Me

-----

Also? This morning's delivery was Sims 3. Uh oh.

It's pretty. And while it's definitely bigger than the last one, I think it's just right in my room.

Also? BBC's Planet Earth looks astonishing. That was an excellent purchase.

Sorry, the pics are fuzzy from uploading.

Went shopping early this morning to get a new telly. Said new telly is a very good Panasonic 32" LCD which will go very nicely in the corner of my lounge and which was £210 off what it was meant to cost. All to do with price matching at John Lewis, which is something I take advantage of as and when I can. Actually, this all came about due to M&D who have been looking for a telly themselves and who had seen this and were asking me if it was a good deal. So we were all shopping first thing this morning to make sure we got in there while the price was still valid and there was still some stock! Why such a bargain? Well, I was leaning very much towards the 37" in the same range, which at standard prices is over £1000, and I wasn't going to get it until after my bonus is paid at end of August. So I saved £500 today - that's a nice new oven for the kitchen right there.

Telly will arrive on Friday sometime after 3pm. So utterly chuffed.

It's shocking, I know, but I think someone is about to bring out a phone / PDA mix that will satisfy me. I say 'I think' because it's been announced and there are pretty pictures and a shiny spec but nobody's actually got their hands on one yet to see what it really does. Still...

It's the HTC Touch Pro. http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=49518 News seems to be that it'll be out around September. It runs windows mobile with HTC fancy flow software on top. It has HSDPA, GPS, a slide-out keyboard, touchscreen, speaker, radio, wifi, bluetooth, and with WM6.1 should have Word (which I need for my reading / editing on the go). It claims to have a decent battery life, too, which will be one of those things that I'll wait for tests on. In terms of size, it'll be a bit longer and not quite as wide as my current palm. I have a lot of things to tick off on my list, and one of those things is quad-band (which this isn't) - I'd need to hang on to my current phone in case I ever go to the US, but since that's increasingly rare that's not a deal-breaker for me.

So... a few months to wait and see.

Got the new laptop yesterday. Why is it I always forget how much time it takes to get a new computer set up to my satisfaction? Still, it's faster, prettier, has more space and more memory than the old (dodgy) one. I've even managed to get some programs working that I thought would have had no chance.

Again!

That's it.I don't trust this machine further than I can throw it. Time for a new laptop. Shopping tomorrow, assuming John Lewis is open. Must write down my requirements list, and I just hope that I can make the software I need work on Vista. *sigh*

Backup, backup, backup. Again.

Blue screen of death! Bugger! The last two times that's happened there's been no hot drinks anywhere near my laptop, so that theory's out of the picture. Currently on the wee laptop to pout about it. Can't even get damn safe mode to boot up at the moment. This is v v v frustrating. I don't want to buy a new laptop, damnit. I'm not ready to try to make all of my software work on Vista. Yes, I'm sure a new laptop would be all shiny and wouldn't give me blue screens of death (are they a new pretty colour in Vista?) but I'm NOT READY!

Pooh.

Boot, will you! Boot boot boot boot boot boot boot boot. Just get on with it so I can stop being pissed off and go to bed.

[Ten minutes later...]

Hmm. I booted in safe mode with command prompt, and set it to run chkdsk /f on next reboot. Rebooted. It's booted into XP with no problems other than being fairly slow to boot. Hmmm and triple hmmm. Am running backup now.

Also? Being pissed off with the computer without being able to have tea? Bad. Must go out first thing tomorrow and buy milk.

I think I might have found it. The device. The one that does (almost) everything I want. Maybe. Perhaps.

It's the HTC TyTyn II. Review at CNET.

My requirements list was:
- a phone that I don't have to charge up every couple of days just because I've used it to make half a dozen phone calls
[it says it has 7 hours of talk time]
- that I can read and edit documents on
[it comes with windows mobile 6, which means it either has word on it or I can load it on]
- that has wifi
[check]
- and hsdpa
[check]
- and bluetooth
[check]
- and other connectivity options
[USB, VoIP]
- that will synch with my diary, contacts, notes and so on
[MS active synch]
- that has a touch-screen
[check]
- that I can write on anywhere with a stylus
[hmm, don't know]
- that has a speaker
[yes, speakerphone]
- that I can use all over the world
[GPRS, check]
- that can play music and video
[definitely music, not sure about video]
- that has the usual random apps that come with any PDA
[GPS (though buying cities might cost), browser, alarm, SMS, etc, etc]
- has email
[check]
- isn't locked to a specific mobile provider
[check]
- and that doesn't cost the earth.
[uh oh...]

Plus Qwerty keyboard that slides out. And a camera.

Pretty. http://www.htc.com/uploadedFiles/Common/Product_Documents/UK/DLflyer170807.pdf

ETA: No, never mind, it's got a shedload of crappy reviews on Amazon from people who've actually used it in earnest.

None of them do what I want them to do. I want a phone that I don't have to charge up every couple of days just because I've used it to make half a dozen phone calls, that I can read and edit documents on, that has wifi and hsdpa and bluetooth and other connectivity options, that will synch with my diary, contacts, notes and so on, that has a touch-screen, that I can write on anywhere with a stylus, that has a speaker, that I can use all over the world, that has a speaker, that can play music and video, that has the usual random apps that come with any PDA, has email, isn't locked to a specific mobile provider, and that doesn't cost the earth. Even ignoring the last request, I can't seem to get more than half of those requirements in one device.

At least I save money.

I bought an HSDPA modem at the weekend and this is the first time I've tried it. It's working, apparently. Am currently on the train and posting via my wee pc and this magic modem. Exellent!

In my never-ending search for gadgets, I want something I can use to help me write on the tube. This is not a simple task, both in the fact that I can't read my own writing on a good day and the bumping of the tube makes it simply not worth the effort for pen and paper, and in the fact that what I want either doesn't exist or is out of stock. Yes, the entire world of electronics is out of stock.

My journey so far ( cut for those who've already passed out from boredom )

So, UK folks, when you shop for computers in real bricks-and-mortar shops, where do you go?

The laptop isn't detecting its battery. I have no idea why. I've checked everything anyone can possibly check, including bios, drivers, uninstalled, reinstalled, restored to 3 weeks ago, etc, etc. Bollocks. I'm pretty sure it's not the battery itself - it was fine last time I used the machine off power (about 2 weeks ago) and if the battery was dead then it would be registering as 0%. Google isn't helping. Damn it.

After 4 hours of trying to fix this, I've given up. What a waste of time when I could have been writing!

There's something hinky going on. It's been a long time since I've written or tried to write the new novel. So long that, while I was sure I'd created a plot file for it, I might not have done. Couldn't find one so I started again. And having had far too many feelings of deja vu I've started running a recover program on my backup disc (already done on my hard drive and found nothing useful). First my pictures, now other things are missing. This is just plain bizarre.

I bought an iPod nano today. It's about the right size for me memory-wise (8Gb), is a dinky little thing that'll take very little space in the universe, and seems fairly simple. It's not something to watch video on - that's just ridiculous - but for music it's got a decent screen to have a look at what I have so that's good. I didn't need the full-sized iPod, and honestly thought it was a bit big - I really don't need 160Gb of space, or even 30Gb, to carry music around. I strongly suspect I'll need some kind of cover for it (it doesn't come with one) because otherwise it's just going to turn into mush really quickly.

iTunes is installed, has done its thing on synching with the new gadget, and I'm now just waiting for the thing to finish its initial charge-up before I try it out. I've found various podcasts which look interesting, too, to add to my usual BBC set. Will see which ones actually turn out to be interesting. So there you go - gadget magic.